Author: Peter

Amsterdam Dance Event. A unicorn in our calendars, waiting to be slain for several years (pun intended). To be honest, I did not really believe I can make it until about mid-September. After Luminosity, and several other clubbing trips around the globe (ok, 3 times Budapest and 1 Amsterdam), my budget was not looking as promising compared to the day I learned I’m not going to make it to Burning Man. This is a story of two young musicians striving to see the bigger picture of the industry, in about 8 parts.

One cold evening, I made the call, booked a backup Apartment not far away from the city center, and bought the Conference Pass. For some reason, I thought it’s a better idea to focus on Panels instead of Parties. Kids, before you learn the hard way: You won’t be able to make the most of both, and end up burning if you try.

Buying one of two passes (ADE Pass, Conference Pass) gives you one nice incentive: access to a delegate database. It’s basically a dream database that keeps marketers wet and awake at night, with contacts to people from the industry. From small independent artists who don’t know South just yet, to a handful of high caliber people who are likely never going to respond to you anyway unless you touch the right spots. The tradeoff is – you’re also ending up in that very same database. You inevitably get spammed by people who don’t bother to read your profile, but…

…holy crap! Someone thinks he/she knows what you’re up to and wants to meet. Yes, you can have a lot of fun talking to people at ADE, if they show up at all. Later on this subject sometimes… Later™.

Now, by this time, I have realized there are opportunities. Huge opportunities! So I started to poke around and found a Hackathon, promising to be a very nice (and intense) 24 hours long rollercoaster for the 100 brightest minds in the music industry. Register form, few pokes at people and ideas, and I found myself on the ADE Hackathon Slack. Now that I was in, I started to play with the idea to not just do what is asked – but I felt there’s an opportunity to lead my own team. And eventually, I had my “Team from the DJ Booth”. Until I didn’t. But more on that – wait for it – Later™.

We did have a very generous share of “bumps on the road” before we even took of. I was lucky enough to have the milder hiccup, with my wife tearing her ligamen and pretty much not being able to walk. My two-week vacation got shortened and… it meant I needed to take a bus to Amsterdam, which is a nice 13 hours trip through the night. For those few days, Susanna’s parents came up to Prague to take care of her. My parents-in-law are awesome!

Oh, by the way. By “we, 2017 edition“, I mean Martin and myself. Finally, there was more than just one person ready to commit. Martin pinged me few days ahead with the awesome news, that he’s just checked out the full ADE Pass. I canceled the backup accommodation and started to look forward heavily. Simple reason: around Martin, I don’t need to pretend to be a nice guy and can be myself (that tall ginger cheeky monster).